WHATCHU TALKIN BOUT WILLIS?

I grew up when Diff'rent Strokes was a popular television show. That's no big deal unless your last name is Willis. To this day I still hear those famous words popularized by Arnold: "Whatchu talkin bout Willis?" Usually they are uttered by someone looking at me as though I may have never heard it before. Yeah, right! Well this blog is what I (Willis) am talkin bout...my thoughts, observations & opinions. Enjoy...



Wednesday, December 10, 2008

B-ball Coach


That's right I am now officially "Coach Willis." My childhood friend, Gary Malarkey, asked me to be his assistant coach this year for a coed basketball team of 8-10 year olds. My girls are on the team too, so it's pretty cool. Ironically, Gary & I played together at the same age many years ago. Honestly, we were really good. We would spank teams like 70 to 12 on a regular basis! We were the city champs and many years later I still enjoy those glory days - can you tell? Back then I was huge and would dominate the boards (& block lots of shots too). I became the outlet pass king and Gary was on the receivng end many times. He average easily 20+ points per game. Anyway, it's fun coaching, but I have to be conscious of not gettting "too competitive." If you know me then you get that. At our first practice the coach told everyone that the #1 rule was to have fun. I'm used to the old schools rants of yesteryear - "Losing isn't fun! We are here to win!" so I just smile and enjoy the kids. And it is actually fun!

5 comments:

William Mckinley Dyer said...

Set them straight and get them ready for life man...Losing is garbage. You dont wanna be losers do u? Then man up and beat the snot out of those other kids

Anonymous said...

I'm 2-0 in my career as a college intramural (is that even close to the spelling?) coach. My sis asked me to coach her team back when we were at RBC. They were getting blown out by 40 points a game. She was the only person who was any good (no one else could dribble and walk at the same time).

There was one girl who had no clue what to do with a basketball, but was fast and tireless. I instituted a box-and-1 defense, told them to let my sis be the offense, and they won their next game by nearly 50 (we won our next game by something like 8 points). That girl hounded the other team's ball-handlers, and never got a foul... and had never played a second of ball in her life. Amazing.

Beat that, Bob Knight.

Laura W. said...

Congrats Coach Willis! Tony was the assistant coach for Brooklyn's soccer team this spring. It was a lot of fun! Go easy on those girls! (;

Anonymous said...

Good luck "Coach"! I remember catching a few passes from the "outlet pass king" myself ... but my 20+ points a game would either go to McCants, C-Bird or Bobby J who would always seem to be streaking 110 mph towards the bucket 30 feet in front of me every time I'd turn to dribble!!! When you tossed it to me to start the break, I knew only one two things was going to happen; 1. C-Bird was going to get his 16th uncontested layup of the game or 2. I was going to dribble it off of my own foot and kick it into the stands. Good times indeed.

David H. Willis said...

Yeah, I think C-bird got Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from all those shots!